Heartbeat
by Avalon Estel
Summary: It only takes a moment, a heartbeat, for something to happen, but sometimes an heartbeat is endless. A drabble collection spanning the Bleach universe, rated for mild violence. Added: Renji wants the kid to shut up, and Ichigo walks away. IN PROGRESS
1. Introduction

A/N: First Bleach fic I've written, though I've been writing fic for a _very _long time. Should be updated every few days, and I'll write a piece each day for the next hundred days to correspond with one of a hundred prompts that I've chosen, each piece one hundred words, also known as a drabble. Will contain any and all characters and genres. Please review!

_Disclaimer: _I'm not Tite Kubo; I'm not even male. I don't own it, so please be nice and leave me alone.

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**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

_#01 – Introduction: 1/1/08  
_Rating: G  
Warnings: Mild Keigo-abuse  
Characters: Ichigo, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro

"This is Arisawa Tatsuki," Ichigo said, gesturing at the girl standing beside him, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed suspiciously. "She's a good friend of mine since we were kids."

Mizuiro held a hand out to Tatsuki at the same time that Keigo murmured, "She's cute! Darn your luck, Kurosaki!"

Tatsuki's hand, which had been extended to shake Mizuiro's, was suddenly a fist as she sent Keigo flying into the nearest wall.

Ichigo laughed. "Forgot to mention she's got a punch on her that could kill an elephant."

Mizuiro had frozen, hand still held out, eyes wide in disbelief. "Whoa."


	2. Foreign

**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

**_#27 – Foreign: 1/2/08  
_Rating: G  
Warnings: AU for Rukia-OOCness  
Characters: Byakuya, Rukia, Hisana**

She is strange to him. She looks exactly like Hisana, but Hisana, she is not. She is loud and brash and eats with her mouth open and kicks the servants around when they fail to do things the way she wants them to, and she embarrasses the entire Kuchiki family sometimes with her behavior around distinguished individuals.

She is different, foreign, but there's something lovely about her, anyway. Her eyes are different from Hisana's, braver, and the set of her mouth stronger, and the way she holds herself, confident.

She is not Hisana, but to Byakuya, that is perfectly fine.


	3. Tower

**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

_#54 – Tower: 1/3/08  
_Rating: G  
Warnings: Spoilers for chp. 185 and onward  
Characters: Orihime, Ulquiorra

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She stands under that window in the warmth of that false sun, every inch the traitor that she isn't, wearing their clothes, speaking their words – every time she says _Aizen-sama_ it feels like the words are cutting her lips. 

She collapses against the wall as Ulquiorra walks out, clasps her hands, the right one still stinging from slapping his face, and she cries, cries and prays for Chad, for her heroes, knowing that this is just another story, and she is just another princess trapped in just another tower, and if they don't make it out, it won't matter anyway.


	4. Breathe Again

**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

_#10 – Breathe Again: 1/4/08  
_Rating: G  
Warnings: Spoilers for chp. 159  
Characters: Soifon, Ukitake

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Ukitake hears noises and sits up in bed.

"Who's there?" he asks the silence.

"It's only me," says a broken voice from the darkness.

"Soifon?" he asks. "What is it?" They are both captains; they have discarded formality.

Silence. He sighs.

"She isn't coming back," he says gently.

"I know. I know."

Ukitake hears her breath catch. He hates this sadness; he knows he's the only one she comes to. He reaches out blindly, finds her face, strokes her hair, murmurs something kind, something meaningless.

She says nothing, so he waits until she resurfaces, waits for her to breathe again.


	5. Do Not Disturb

**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

_#63 – Do Not Disturb: 1/5/08  
_Rating: PG  
Warnings: Hollow!Ichigo, darkish  
Characters: Ichigo, Hollow Ichigo

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Ichigo dreads sleeping.

He knows that when he closes his eyes, he will open them again to find himself lying on that sideways building. And he knows that when he looks, expecting to see Zangetsu, he will only see _him_.

_He_ will be standing there, holding Zangetsu against Ichigo's throat, dead-white, pure madness against the sky.

_How's it going, Your Majesty?_

Ichigo won't reply.

_He_ will kneel and quietly, quietly whisper in Ichigo's ear, _You ain't got much time left up on that throne. Soon, you'll be kneeling._

Ichigo will awaken then, trembling, and will sit until morning creeps in.


	6. Sorrow

**Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**

_#28 – Sorrow: 1/6/08  
_Rating: PG  
Warning: mentions of blood, spoilers for chp. 173  
Characters/Pairings: Renji/Rukia/Ichigo

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**

Renji is being rent asunder, and no one can see.

He knows, even as he tightens his arm around her shoulders, kneeling there under Aizen's blade, that he's not the one.

"_I'll never let her go!"_

Rukia will never understand just what he means. But he'll never let go, even if she won't let him hold on. He hears her whisper his name and he breaks a little more inside, because he knows that he will never be enough, never be the one, even though _he's_ holding her, bleeding for her.

He'll never be enough.

But he holds her closer.


	7. Expectations

_******Bleach Daily 100Themes Drabble Challenge**_

_#33 – Expectations: 5/7/08  
_Rating: G  
Warnings: Spoilers for Rescue Orihime Arc  
Characters: Renji, Uryu

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Renji thought it was just weird.

Wasn't it some kind of trend for people with glasses to be quiet and reserved? Heck, even Aizen had been quiet and gentle before.

…Of course, he'd always been planning a hostile takeover, but that was beside the point.

Renji just kept running and stared at the Quincy kid, who had been yammering all the way about the pride of the Quincy and his grandfather and beating Kurosaki and saving Orihime, practically planning how to whisk her away into the sunset, and Renji wondered if he was ever, ever, _ever_ going to shut up.


	8. Broken Pieces

**_Bleach 100Themes Personal Drabble Challenge_**

_#76 – Broken Pieces: 5/13/08  
_Rating: PG  
Warnings: Angst  
Characters/Pairings: Ichigo, Tatsuki, mentions of Keigo and Orihime  


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Orihime is gone. Simply gone.

He wants to die.

But God, he never thought that Tatsuki, _Tatsuki_, would be the one to make him break.

He can't believe what he said. He can't make her understand why he said it, what he means, and it's killinghim_killinghimkillinghim_. He never wanted her to look at him that way, and as he leaves her in Keigo's arms, the burning afterimage of her eyes shatters him as completely as that window shattered moments before.

He wants to grab her and explain, but he shoves his hands further down into his pockets and keeps walking.


End file.
